Antonio Querido, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Country Representative in Uganda appealed to concerted efforts involving farmers, traders, regulators, and the government to ensure that consumers access safe food.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 40 percent of households did not consume sufficient quantity of food with the proper nutrient content, while rural households experienced twice more prevalence of food poverty that the urban ones.
While addressing the leaders, Museveni commended the Karamojong for accepting to surrender their guns and embrace peace that is now attracting more development and social-economic transformation.
Masitula Nangwali, a prominent maize farmer from Namisindwa District, laments the inability to sell her produce across the border despite harvesting 20,000 tonnes of maize each season. She notes that while maize prices in Uganda range from UGX 500 to UGX 1,000 per kilogram, prices in Kenya are significantly higher, between UGX 2,500 and UGX 3,000.
Organized by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and held at Speke Resort, Munyonyo in Kampala, the conference brought together governments, researchers, and civil society organizations committed to achieving food self-sufficiency in Africa.
Gabula said that Busoga kingdom has a bottom-top approach system, of rallying communities to involve themselves in economic transformation initiatives, from the village clan heads all through to the royal chiefs’ cabinets.
Titus Jogo, the Refugee Desk Officer for Adjumani district says the plan was beneficiary refugees to either sell or keep the maize to supplement what they receive from the World Food Program.
The disease affects the colour of the banana fingers and bunches from green to brown or black, according to one of the affected farmers Nestori Aturinda. He says that the disease eventually results in premature ripening and shrinking of the banana’s, yet even when cooked, they remain hard and inedible.
Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the institution’s Vice Chancellor decried the reduced funding citing that JICA withdrew funding “at a time when East Africa needed it the most.”
